Djukanovic's Statement on the War in Croatia

Forgive Us, Dubrovnik!

It is good for Montenegro that its president has crossed his Rubicon. Now it will be easier to find a formula for cooperation with Croatia and the whole region for the sake of peace and quality of joint future

AIM Podgorica, June 25, 2000

It is not in the tradition of the Balkans: a president of a state, in the name of his people, apologises to another people for what was done in war operations. That is exactly what Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic did on the occasion of his first meeting with Croatian president Stjepan Mesic in Cavtat.

“I wish in my own and in the name of the citizens of Montenegro, especially those who share my moral and political convictions, to express regret to all the citizens of the Republic of Croatia, especially of Konavle and Dubrovnik, the citizens of Neretvljanska zupa – for all the pain, for all the suffering and all material losses inflicted on them by any representative of Montenego as member of JNA in these tragic developments”, said Djukanovic at the press conference after completion of talks with Mesic in Cavtat. And as concerning the crimes committed under the walls of Dubrovnik, Djukanovic said that the responsibility had to be personilised, that it was the only and the best way to lift the mortgage of national responsibility which was through history imputed, or at least there was an attempt to do it, to the Croat people, and nowadays there was an attempt to impute it to Montenegrin people.

In explaining the motives which had led many in Montenegro to set out to the Dubrovnik battlefield in the beginning of the nineties, from the distance of nine years, Djukanovic stressed that a considerable part of Montenegrin public, believing that they were fighting for the good cause – preservation of Yugoslavia – was naively drawn into the position of accomplices in the war and violent developments which had a tragic outcome. Djukanovic saw through this manipulation, because it proved in the past ten years that in Belgrade, hegemonistic, dictatorial and tyrannical centre there had existed the intention to increase the danger to Montenegro and its survival from its immediate surroundings in order to stress the inferiority of Montenegro in relation to Belgrade. Montenegro had paid, said Djukanovic, a high price of that manipulation: with lost lives on the one and the other side, with interruption of traditionally good Montenegrin-Croatian relations, banishment from international community, long and tedious attempts of new manipulations by Belgrade, with the intention to transfer the responsibility for the developments to Montenegro instead to admit that responsibility lay at the place where it actually dwelled, and that was the place where Belgrade dictator still presides, Montenegrin president assessed.

In this way Djukanovic unmasked the whole scenario. He explicitly admitted that “liberation” of Dubrovnik had not been undertaken because the “Ustashe” had attacked Montenegro (interpretation of general Strugar, and Djukanovic himself at the time), nor “for reasons of humaneness” in order to unblock the military barracks and protect the “threatened Serbs” in Dubrovnik region (according to Branko Kostic and defence minister of Montenegro Babic), nor “because of fascism” and Kadijevic's “war trap” (Momir Bulatovic), but that the war had been waged for greater Serbia.

This was Djukanovic's statesman's move which lay the foundation for completely new connections between Montenegro and Croatia which with their meaning by far exceed the significance of bilateral relations. It proved that Djukanovic had waited for a convenient moment to make this point and confirm that as steerman of Montenegrin boat he was firmly holding the compass in his hands.

After Montenegro had reached the agreement with the Republic of Croatia, skirting the regime in Belgrade, to open two boarding crossings, in Debeli brijeg and Kobila, the logical move was – full renewal of good neighbourly relations and gradual resolution of the problem of Prevlaka. At the time of NATO intervention, due to blockade by the Yugoslav Army, the only exit to the world for president Djukanovic was Dubrovnik airport in Cilipi which was destroyed in 1991 by Montenegrin members of the reserve forces. Montenegro appreciated this. Indeed, 34.5 tons of German marks necessary for the first phase of the two-currency system were brought via Dubrovnik airport to Montenegro. And a very convenient contract was signed on the use of water from the spring in Plat for waterworks of Herceg Novi.

For some time president Djukanovic had hesitated to apologise to Dubrovnik, and he used the opportunity of a journalist's questions at the debate of Radio Free Europe on the occasion of his visit to Prague in October 1999 to explain what he had meant to say in the beginning of February in Podgorica, when he said that he was not “sure who should apologise to whom” for the developments in the beginning of the nineties. In his comment to the remark that – despite full appreciation of the process of reform – the past decade could not be forgotten and the role of Montenegro in it, Djukanovic said: “I cannot get rid of responsibility for what has happened in the past ten years. I was a protagonist of that policy. But, it is necessary to analyse carefully the proportions of Montenegrin responsibility and who decided the epilogue of all these war conflicts. Who had at the time by far more significantly affected the development of events? I do not wish to evade responsibility, nor participation of our citizens who had as members of former JNA attacked Dubrovnik. I do not wish to spare neither myself nor Montenegro, but that responsibility certainly would not rank the first”.

Two months ago in an interview via Internet president Djukanovic said that he would apologise “if necessary” and then he revealed that he had never been at the battlefields of Dubrovnik and Herzegovina. “The picture that was published was taken in Niksic when Bulatovic and I visited the reserve forces of our JNA which participated at a regular army drill before the beginning of the war”, said Djukanovic stressing that he had missed numerous opportunities to explain this.

Montenegrin independent weekly Monitor has written on several occasions about the need to shed light on the role of Montenegro in dissolution of SFRY, and especially in the war in Croatia, demanding from the president to reveal the whole mechanism he had once been a part of and thanks to which Montenegrin members of reserve forces had been called up to set fire on and plunder Konavle and Dubrovnik. Because “this mechanism still operates and it is gaining new strength”. Practically tomorrow it might be used for a new “liberation mission”. This time in Montenegro and under the pretext of “defence of Yugoslavia from separatists”, Monitor assessed.

A few months before that Djukanovic found the strength to publicly say that in Croatia had not been “a war for peace” nor a war against “infuriated Ustashe”. Djukanovic in fact estimated that time had come for settling accounts and that it would be good for Montenegro if Montenegrin president crossed his Rubicon.

Now, in the interest of peace and quality of joint future with Croatia and the whole region it will be easier to find a formula which will turn the territory of Prevlaka into a bridge of cooperation and joint projects. The solution for relations between Croatia and Montenegro is in good neighbourly relations and development of tourism, and this does not go hand in hand with militarisation. Instead of accumulating armies on both sides of the border, the priority is construction of the Adriatic highway and a joint way to Europe. This is finally a good beginning.

Branko VOJICIC

(AIM)